Jules Verne Trophy, IDEC Sport hit a UFO

Atlantic Ocean – IDEC Sport hit an unidentified floating object during the night. The port rudder is broken. However they are still expected to reach the pontoon in Brest at 1900hrs UTC.

At around 0300hrs this morning, just over 130 miles SW of Ireland in heavy seas, the crew on IDEC Sport heard two big bangs, indicating that they had hit an unidentified floating object (a container, plank of wood, or something else?).

Once they had got over the scare, Francis Joyon’s crew saw that the port rudder was broken. On the starboard tack, only the central rudder can be used to steer the boat. However, that is not too worrying for the moment, as we can see from her speeds.

Six hours after suffering this damage, IDEC Sport was still making 30 knots towards the finish, which at 0900hrs this morning was 230 miles away. So for the time being the men are still expected to finish in Brest at around 1900hrs this evening.

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